The invention relates to a process for extracting diterpene glycosides from plant or botanical sources.
Diterpene glycosides are useful as naturally sweet material and can be obtained from various sources.
Typical plant or botanical sources contain useful diterpene glyocosides as well as certain additional polyphenolic substances, or tannins, some of which give health benefits such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation and the like. Other portions of these tannins, however, have an astringent or bitter taste, and render conventional extracts of such plant sources unsuitable for use as sweetening agents.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a process for extracting diterpene glycosides wherein the resulting product has a useful sweet flavor profile.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for extracting diterpene glycosides which provides a highly concentrated diterpene glycoside end product.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a process for extracting diterpene glycosides which uses minimal amounts of organic or inorganic chemicals so as to provide a high yield of diterpene glycosides in an efficient, simple, consistent and economic process.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinbelow.